Traditional art and sketching

Peruse our Sketching from the Imagination series, start your own sketch journal, or try your hand at clay sculpting! If you’re a complete beginner looking for a new hobby, or even an experienced artist looking for inspiration and workflow insights, our traditional art and sketching resources have plenty to offer!

3D digital art

Covering a wide variety of software and approaches, our books, magazines, and eBooks are there to offer you the support and motivation you need. Whether you want to sculpt a monster in ZBrush or create a stylized character in 3ds Max, take a look at our range to start your next project!

Issue 03 of Total magazine focuses on the theme of characters, including tutorials from Randy Bishop, Denis Zilber, and Brun Croes to help you hone your character design skills. So, get stuck in and see what characters we can help you create in the issue!

Welcome to total magazine issue two! This month’s focus is squarely on anatomy, with a mix of traditional, 2D, and 3D tutorials to get stuck into. So polish those tools, crack your fingers, and refine that muscle definition or nail that pose!

In the very first issue you will be treated to an introduction to the 3dtotal team, and an insight into some of the projects we are working on at the moment. Additionally you can enjoy some of our sci-fi themed articles and tutorials which we hope will help take your own work to the next step.

Learn how to make a fun steampunk heroine with the guidance of skilled character artist Roumen Filipov, with 3D model and texture assets included! This eBook covers an entire character creation workflow, from modeling organic and hard surfaces in ZBrush, to topology and UVing with 3ds Max, to posing and rendering the final model. Discover useful techniques that’ll add life to your characters, from creating skin pores to simple posing with the free Super Simple Rig. (ZBrush, 3ds Max with V-Ray, and Photoshop are required for this project.)

Learn how to quickly turn ordinary photographs into new concepts with this handy eBook on photo manipulation and matte painting techniques. The four chapters cover how to use blending modes, textures, brush techniques, over-painting, and combining 2D and3D techniques to create concepts and special effects. Featuring tutorials from Mark Kolobaev, Rotyslav Zagornov, David Roya, and Mathieu ‘FreaksFx’ Roszak this eBook is the go-to guide for time saving ways to create new concepts.

This month brings you great interviews with the likes of Dmitry Cheremisin and Matthias Develtere, tons of tutorials covering modeling, texturing and rendering, and more besides! Whether you’re in the mood for characters, objects or vehicles, fantasy or sci-fi, we hope there’s something here to tickle your fancy.

We’re bringing you a jam-packed issue this month, with brilliant interviews and tutorials for you to get stuck into! Learn how to make sci-fi ships in 3ds Max and Maya with Victoria Passariello and Rory Björkman, or if you’re in the mood for some character art, pick up some valuable tricks from Roumen Filipov and Ryan Reid.

Another month, another issue packed with great content! This time we’re catching up with great character and concept artists like Marco Plouffe, Elijah McNeal and Ran Manolov, whose work and words are sure to get your mind buzzing with inspiration. If you’re interested in mobile apps, we take a look at a great project by Jeremy Kool.

Concept design, 3D printing, texturing, and fantastic sci-fi art are at the forefront of this month’s issue. We speak to Tor Frick and Justin Goby Fields about their accomplishments, and marvel at Paul Braddock and James W. Cain’s 3D-printed handiwork. Mohammad Attaran also shares an insightful look into the making of our exciting cover image – it’s a tale of hard work and perseverance, which are of course the key to everything!

John A. Martini covers the entire process of developing a stunning photoreal scene, from pre-viz and setting up the 3ds Max physical camera, through modeling in Maya, creating objects in 3ds Max, texturing and shading, and finally culminating with in-depth tuition for lighting and rendering the final scene. Featured software includes: 3ds Max, Maya, V-Ray, Photoshop, ZBrush, and NUKE.

Over the course of 8 parts, Patrick Evrard reveals a host of useful tips for creating a stylized character in Maya. Starting with a comprehensive and insightful breakdown of the major tools involved in character creation, Patrick moves through modeling, lighting, texturing, and rendering, before moving on to those finishing touches in post-production. Discover everything you need to know about creating a character in Maya!

If you’re a fan of sci-fi and monsters, you’re in for a treat with this new issue. We interview Seb Barker, VFX supervisor behind the upcoming Monsters: Dark Continent, and Capcom artist Naru Omori, who’s worked on such videogame series as Resident Evil and Dead Rising. We meet sculptor Jake Anderson’s clay monsters, learn how to create sci-fi vehicles in 3ds Max and Maya, and look at modeling hard-surface robots in ZBrush.